Shameless Screen Entertainment has submitted a fully uncut version of Cannibal Holocaust to an advisory board at the BBFC who have advised them that the film would (only) have to be cut by 14 seconds! (compared with 5:44s of cuts at the last submission in 2001).
At 18 minutes – Remove sight of man killing small mammal with a knife. Cut required from 0:18:21 – 0:18:35.
In conversation, Deodato has advised Shameless that, in his mind, the muskrat scene was the only animal-killing in the film where the animal was sacrificed, all of the other animals were eaten as was normal practice in that part of the world.
The BBFC feels that all previous cuts to the scenes of sexual violence can now be waived as the scenes in question are horrifying and repugnant, and clearly not designed to eroticise or promote sexual violence. As for the other animal cruelty scenes (the turtle, monkey and pig), the BBFC’s view is that these killings were quick, clean and humane and therefore do not contravene BBFC policy.
Shameless has now decided to release not one, but two versions of the film! This means that the Shameless release will feature this longest ever UK version and Deodato’s 21st Century Edit, which will see the animal cruelty toned down. As a result, Deodato’s version will contain less animal cruelty than the BBFC classified version!
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